Online Faculty Development

E-Learning Support and Instructional Design (eLSID) provides professional development and training for faculty. To be eligible to teach online at Wake Tech, faculty are required to successfully complete a 30-hour online certification program, facilitated by eLSID. Additionally, eLSID develops and facilitates training sessions focused on online best practices, digital accessibility, and instructional technologies. Please see the descriptions from the eLSID Course Catalog:

Accessibility

Course
Description
ACS 101 Introduction to Accessibility
This self-paced, online course provides a basic overview of accessibility guidelines that will help you gain an understanding of how to make your course content accessible to all learners. It includes core accessibility concepts, as well as instruction on how to create accessible documents, accessible presentations, accessible multimedia and accessible Blackboard content. Resources to facilitate the creation of accessible course content are provided.
ACS 110 Accessible Word Documents
This online workshop provides an overview of creating accessible documents through hands-on application of accessibility principles. Participants will learn how to create accessible text and structure, incorporate accessible images, tables and hyperlinks and run a final accessibility check. The accessible document will then be saved as an accessible PDF file.
ACS 120 Accessible PowerPoint
In this online workshop, participants will learn how to create an accessible PowerPoint presentation and update the accessibility of an existing presentation. Topics include elements of an accessible PowerPoint, common accessibility problems, accessible structure and design features, accessible images and non-text elements, accessible multimedia and saving/sharing presentations.
ACS 131 Accessible Video Captioning
This hands-on course (offered both in person and online) will introduce participants to captioning YouTube videos, both their own and those created by others. The purpose is to introduce the concept of captioning, apply it using two online tools and utilize transcripts. This knowledge will be assessed throughout the course via discussion boards, quizzes and a final project.
ACS 135 Accessible Image Design
This one-week, online course is designed to introduce you to the Poet image description guidelines resource, aiding you in providing more effective and accessible descriptions for your image content. During this course, you will be introduced to a web-based image description resource called Poet, learn significant factors that impact how description for images is provided and how to more effectively and efficiently provide image descriptions.
ACS 140 Accessible Excel Worksheets
This workshop (offered in person and online) will teach participants how to create accessible Excel worksheets using Microsoft Excel 2016. Participants will learn how to properly format and structure Excel worksheets to meet ADA compliance and to be screen-reader accessible.

Blackboard skills

Course
Description
BBD 010 What's New in Blackboard?
This informational workshop (offered in person and online) provides an overview of the new features and enhancements in the most recent Blackboard update. Additional information and resources about the Blackboard update are provided in the eLearning Resource Center within the "Issues" and "Updates" area. This workshop will be provided based on the annual Blackboard upgrade schedule. Visit the professional development registration system for a list of topics covered.
BBD 121 Blackboard Basics
This professional development course provides faculty with the necessary information to develop the Blackboard skills required to efficiently facilitate online courses. The training information found in Blackboard Basics will allow instructors to reflect on a wide, but vital, range of topics that are essential to effectively teaching online, from how to thoughtfully structure course materials to how to properly create assessments and navigate Blackboard's grade center.
BBD 133 Detecting Plagiarism with Blackboard SafeAssign
This one-hour, seated workshop provides an overview of Blackboard's plagiarism detection service, called SafeAssign, which is fully integrated with Blackboard Assignments. Participants will learn how to utilize SafeAssign to detect student plagiarism and educate students about proper citation and attribution.
BBD 134 Using Groups in Blackboard
This two-week online workshop is an advanced Blackboard training course. Participants must have a good working knowledge of the Blackboard Grade Center, Discussion Board, using the Assignment feature and organizing content. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the Groups tool and some of the communication and collaboration tools used to promote interaction among students.
BBD 141 Blackboard Ally Training
This workshop (offered in person and online) provides an overview of Blackboard Ally. This tool is fully integrated into Blackboard and assists faculty in evaluating their course content for electronic accessibility. The tool also creates alternative formats for content that benefit students with varying learning needs. Participants will learn how to use Ally to assess and fix accessibility issues with their content and will also learn about the benefits the alternative formats provide to students.
BBD 150 Advanced Blackboard Testing
This workshop is an advanced Blackboard session. Participants must have a good working knowledge of the Blackboard Test tool including how to create, deploy and manage a test. In this workshop, participants will learn best practices for Blackboard testing, how to use advanced testing features and options and valuable tips and tricks to ensure a successful Blackboard testing experience for you and your students.
BBD 210 Blackboard Adaptive Release
This training session provides an overview of creating adaptive release rules to control student access to materials in Blackboard. Participants will learn how to use the Adaptive Release tool to hide materials from student view based on several criteria, including completion of the course entry quiz. Participants will also learn about the Performance Dashboard.
BBD 212 Blackboard Date Management
This one-hour, seated workshop provides an overview of the Blackboard Date Management tool. Participants will learn how to quickly and efficiently adjust all course content and tool dates, including availability dates, due dates and adaptive release dates from one location. Automatic and individual date management options will be discussed.

Open education resources

Course
Description
OER 101 A Guide to Open Educational Resources
This workshop (offered in person and online) introduces the Open Education Resources movement, with a focus on the benefits to instructors and students. In addition to the history of the movement, participants will learn about using Creative Commons licenses and about finding open educational resources, such as images, videos, audio recordings, learning objects, and e-books that may be included in courses. Participants will explore numerous OER resources, including federal and state government digital multimedia galleries, university digital libraries, corporate digital collections, and other sources of digital instructional materials.
OER 120 Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines
This online workshop provides an overview of copyright, fair use, and public domain as they apply to instructional materials, such as supplemental texts, images and multimedia. Open Educational Resources will also be introduced briefly.

Technology

Course
Description
H5P 101 Getting Started With H5P
H5P empowers everyone to create rich and interactive web experiences more efficiently. Integrated into Blackboard, this unique tool is web- and mobile-friendly and aims to make it easy for everyone to create and share content for your students. Create content such as interactive videos, interactive presentations, quizzes, timelines and much more.
TEC 010 What's New in SoftChalk Cloud
This course is designed for existing users of SoftChalk Create to help with migrating old content from SoftChalk to SoftChalk Cloud. This will cover saving from Blackboard to SoftChalk Cloud.
TEC 100 Special topics to be named
Special topics as relevant to changes in our educational technology tools.
TEC 102 Getting Started with Flip
Creating a community is key to student success in online classes, but are the discussion forums enough to do this? Flip is a free resource offered to educators that allows students to collaborate through short videos. This session will show you how to sign up for Flip, set up a classroom space and give tips to overcome students who may be shy about this type of discussion.
TEC 104 Creating Effective Instructional Graphics
This course will provide an overview of creating and using instructional graphics effectively. Participants will discuss important elements of instructional graphics and have an opportunity to experiment with Canva and Snagit, two image-editing and graphic design tools that can be used to create and edit graphics.
TEC 110 Getting Started With MS Teams
This training, offered in person and online, will cover an introduction to using Microsoft Teams to hold classes and office hours. Microsoft Teams brings together people, conversations and content, along with the tools that teams need, so they can easily collaborate to achieve more. It's integrated with the familiar Office applications and is built from the ground up on the Office 365 global, secure cloud.
TEC 115 Engaging Your Students With MS Teams
In this course, participants will learn strategies to increase students' engagement through Microsoft Teams. The lessons are separated into three main topics: increasing instructor presence, increasing student-to-student engagement and making course content interactive. Participants will review each of these topics, be introduced to several teaching methods for each topic and be asked to practice a method in the Teams classroom. As part of this training, you will be working in a Teams classroom and participating in discussions through Flip, but please continue to check Blackboard as well.
TEC 120 SoftChalk
In this online training, participants will create a SoftChalk lesson for use in online courses. Participants will learn how to create an accessible, web-based interactive lesson with navigation links, pop-up annotations, web links, activities, quiz questions and an embedded captioned video.
TEC 130 Snagit
This session, offered in person and online, introduces participants to TechSmith's Snagit software. Snagit is used to create, edit and enhance screen-capture images. During this course, participants will use Snagit to capture images and use the Snagit Editor to enhance images to help viewers understand the purpose of the image. Best practices for creating instructional graphics and using graphics in instruction will also be presented.
TEC 140 Camtasia
This workshop, offered in person and online, will introduce Camtasia, a screen-recording and video-editing software system used to create video tutorials. Participants will create an accessible screencast video and share it with students on Blackboard. Participants should successfully complete the course to gain access to a full version of Camtasia software.
TEC 145 Engaging Students With VidGrid
This professional development course aims to provide participants with the skills and insights needed to create videos that are specific to their students' needs and that also fully engage students in active learning. Rather than having students passively view videos in a course, VidGrid offers options to turn those viewings into opportunities for active learning and collaboration. This course will introduce those features, guide faculty through using them in a meaningful way and provide the space to try out creating videos where faculty can benefit from technological and pedagogical support and feedback.

Teaching and learning strategies

Course
Description
TLS 100 Practical Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Strategies and Tools
The idea of implementing UDL in your course can seem overwhelming. Well, it doesn't have to be. During this webinar, we will discuss simple strategies and tools for creating and presenting instructional material in a way that helps students process information more efficiently. We will also discuss ways to support students with interacting and engaging with instructional content.
TLS 101 Introduction to Universal Design for Learning
This course introduces learners to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) theory and offers participants tips and resources for applying UDL in their own courses.
TLS 105 Planning and Facilitating Synchronous Sessions
This course focuses on providing faculty and staff with the skills to begin including synchronous sessions into their online courses. Participants will review how to plan for a synchronous session, share activities that they want to try in a session and experiment with Microsoft Teams to learn how to hold an engaging synchronous session.
TLS 106 Effective Synchronous Presentation Skills
Do you finish giving a live lesson and wonder if the students actually "got it"? This course covers strategies to meet the technical, physical and pedagogical challenges that are unique to live video learning environments. We will touch on developing slides in PowerPoint that work better on a shared virtual screen, how to set up your machine (and yourself) for optimal lesson-casting and some approaches to make sure students start your session engaged and stay engaged throughout.
TLS 110 Using Teams for Group Projects
This course is designed for faculty/staff who have familiarity with Microsoft Teams and are now looking for guidance on using the platform for group projects. While the course resource area does contain Teams tutorials, the course content focuses just on separating students into smaller groups. If you have not yet used Teams, please take time to review the supplemental materials. The goal of this course is to show how groups can be assigned in Teams by creating separate channels, what applications can be used in these separate channels, and how an instructor can navigate through them.
TLS 115 Writing Effective Multiple-Choice Items
This online course will review Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT) and explore how it relates to the creation of multiple-choice items. Participants will learn strategies and tips for writing multiple-choice items and aligning those items with student learning outcomes. Participants will create items that measure from the remember level of RBT to the evaluate level of RBT.
TLS 120 Seriously Simple Podcasting
This course aims to incorporate accepted theories of adult learning with informative, hands-on tech training to provide faculty and staff with the skills to begin designing and recording creative and informative podcasts for online courses. A properly designed and thoughtfully implemented podcast can provide a unique and memorable learning experience for students and be a valuable communicative tool for faculty.
TLS 125 Using H5P to Engage Students
H5P empowers everyone to create rich and interactive web experiences more efficiently. Integrated into Blackboard, this unique tool is web- and mobile-friendly and aims to make it easy for everyone to create and share content to engage students. Create content such as interactive videos, interactive presentations, quizzes, timelines and much more. In this session, we'll explore how you can use H5P to build meaningful interactions to your course content.
TLS 130 Creating Quality Rubrics
This online course will introduce rubrics and their importance, their purpose, different types and how they can be constructed and used. Rubrics have been utilized to evaluate and provide feedback. They are a scoring scale used for evaluation in different contexts, based on a range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. The course will discuss different types of rubrics, the pros and cons of using rubrics and introduce the application of rubrics in Blackboard.
TLS 135 Improving Student Retention Using Blackboard
This course provides an overview of how to access and implement the performance Dashboard, Retention Center and other course evaluation tools to monitor and track student progress. Participants will learn how to access the course evaluation tools, observe student activity, identify at-risk students, evaluate student participation in discussion forums, modify and customize Retention Center rules and several other tool features to support instructor presence and student success.
TLS 140 Blogs, Wikis and Journals in the Online Environment
This course provides a theory-based approach to promoting collaboration and communication within the online environment. Through lecture, hands-on application and the surveying of select resources, participants will learn how to effectively implement, create and manage a journal, blog and wiki within an online course. Participants will gain knowledge of how to use the tools to encourage student expression and creativity, foster student engagement and collaboration and enhance student interaction.
TLS 145 Creating Engaging Discussion Forums
Participants will learn about general strategies for creating and grading engaging discussion forums, as well as the following specific types of discussion forums: icebreakers, question-and-answer forums, narrative learning forums (scenarios, case studies and role play) and content-related forums. Participants will have the opportunity to create and share a discussion forum activity, assignment or assessment.
TLS 150 Engaging Students With Digital Media
This online course provides a theory-based approach to engaging students through media in a digital world. It provides participants with an overview of the different types of media, advantages and strategies for incorporating media into the online learning environment and the different resources available through Wake Tech and non-Wake Tech platforms.
TLS 200 Enhanced Engagement Teaching Strategies
Enhanced Engagement Teaching Strategies is inspired by the First In the World: Project Compass project at Wake Tech. The goal is to create proactive strategies to reach students, particularly students of color, who are at risk for low performance in online courses to ensure their engagement. These proactive strategies were designed using the Community of Inquiry framework, which focuses on cognitive, instructor and social presence. The premise of Project Compass was to increase the persistence and performance of students in online courses through technology and enhanced social interventions.
TLS 202 Creating and Using Digital Portfolios in Blackboard
This professional development course will introduce faculty to using digital portfolios as an assessment in online learning. It will discuss how to assign a digital portfolio, offer guidance for the requirements of a digital portfolio and introduce the Blackboard Portfolio Tool.
TLS 301 What is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
This course provides the necessary background on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and defines equality, diversity and inclusion in education.
TLS 302 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Student Learning and Academic Success
The second course in a five-part series, TLS 301 focuses on the first tenet of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Achieving academic success through high expectations. In this session, participants will learn how planning for equity in the classroom can lead to greater student success. Techniques to tend to students' academic needs will be shared and course planning for using Culturally Relevant Teaching will begin.
TLS 303 Creating and Using Digital Portfolios in Blackboard
The third course in a five-course series, TLS 303 focuses on the second tenet of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: developing cultural competence through course design. In this session, strategies will be shared to help integrate students' cultures, identities, and beliefs in course materials and online curriculum design. Faculty will be asked to continue to work in one of their courses to develop a plan to implement Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in their course.
TLS 304 Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Develop Social Consciousness in Course Materials
The fourth course in a five-course series, TLS 304 focuses on the third tenet of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: social consciousness. In this session, the importance of making socially aware and impactful curriculum will be discussed. Faculty will continue to work with their previous course planning to build on their plan to implement Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in their course.
TLS 305 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Capstone Course
In the Capstone Course of the Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Certificate series, participants will implement the strategies they have planned during the courses. With an instructional designer, participants will show in one of their curriculum courses how they have practiced Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. At the conclusion of the implementation, a certificate will be given.
TLS 310 Authentic Assessments and Use of Career Relevancy Questions
In the world we live in now, most students are interested only in learning something new if they know it helps forward their goals. With this knowledge, it is important that we take this into account when developing assessments. In this webinar, we will be talking about using authentic assessments to show content relevancy and creating assessments that are applicable to students' career and professional goals.

EPIC

Course
Description
EPIC 100 Best Practices in Online Teaching
In this eight-week online course, participants will learn about Wake Tech's eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC) and how it will help in effective and efficient course design. Participants will gain and apply knowledge and skills in Universal Design for Learning, accessible course design and best practices in course navigation, communication and collaboration, and online assessments. Participants will demonstrate these skills through the design and creation of an online course. The evaluation of the course will be used to measure success.
This course can be taken instead of the following series:
  • TLS 101
  • EPIC 101
  • EPIC 102
  • EPIC 103
  • EPIC 104
EPIC 101 Best Practices in Course Navigation & Design
This online course provides an overview of Wake Tech's standardized course menu. Participants will learn about the eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC) and how it will help in effective and efficient course design. Participants will gain information regarding the course menu design and how to customize course menu items for best practices in online learning.
EPIC 102 Best Practices in Online Communication & Collaboration
This online course provides an overview of Wake Tech's quality communication standards as part of eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC). Participants will gain information regarding effective communication and collaboration in online courses and fostering student engagement.
EPIC 103 Best Practices in Online Assessments
This online course provides an overview of Wake Tech's quality assessment standards as part of the eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC). Participants will gain information regarding creating and administering effective assessments in online courses, creating measurable student learning outcomes and aligning student learning outcomes with lesson objectives.
EPIC 104 EPIC 30 Capstone
This online course allows participants to create course components meeting Wake Tech's quality course standards as part of the eLearning Preparedness Initiative across the College (EPIC). Participants will evaluate and implement information gained from previous EPIC courses regarding creating and administering effective online courses.
EPIC30 Online Teaching Certification Course
This course is a comprehensive certification satisfying all EPIC30 courses, including Blackboard skills, Universal Design for Learning, accessibility and best practices. For this 10-week module, faculty must follow a weekly schedule, and there are specific deadlines that must be adhered to. Faculty will be required to submit work during designated times so they can receive feedback in a timely manner for material that builds towards a final project.
This course can be taken instead of the following series:
  • BBD 121
  • ACS 101
  • EPIC 100
EPIC 105 EPIC Course Reviewer Training
This two-week, online course is designed to prepare certified online faculty to become an EPIC eLearning Course Reviewer. This course will include a review of the responsibilities and duties of a course reviewer. It will review the alignment of the EPIC Quality eLearning Standards and course review rubric. Participants will practice critiquing and writing helpful recommendations and participate in a practice review in which the participants will be asked to review specific standards in an online course using the EPIC quality eLearning rubric. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be eligible to serve on course review teams.
EPIC 106 EPIC Mentor Training
This course is composed of lessons that support your ability to serve as an EPIC mentor for new online faculty. Each module builds on previous ones, and a complete understanding of the program is required for course completion. The lessons cover mentoring policies, procedures, best practices, mentor and mentee roles and responsibilities, goal setting and time management, relationship building and communication and conflict resolution.
EPIC 107 Accessibility: Why It Matters and How to Plan for It
This course provides an overview of the laws associated with digital content and the standards that support achieving compliance with accessibility requirements. Participants will learn how to interpret the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and cross-reference associated success criteria to remediate digital content elements. Topics will include an overview of core accessibility concepts, developing an accessibility plan and identifying resources to support the development of accessible digital content.
EPIC 108 Teaching with Technology
In this two-week, online course, participants will learn instructional strategies for the effective use of educational technology to create and enhance instructional materials and activities. In addition to researching new technologies and exploring how to ensure technology is furthering student learning, participants will learn how to smoothly guide students in engaging new technologies to improve the learning experience.
EPIC 109 Evaluating Your Course Design
This course will provide an in-depth review of the current EPIC Quality eLearning Standards. Participants will use the standards to evaluate their course and create an action plan to align their course design to meet them. EPIC certification is a prerequisite to this course.
EPIC 110 EPIC Exemplary Course Capstone
A certified EPIC Online Teaching faculty member, with a supervisor recommendation, is assigned an instructional designer who will act as a consultant and mentor over a semester in updating an existing online course to achieve exemplary status. EPIC 110 is part of the EPIC Master Online Teaching Certification.

HyFlex Teaching and Learning

Course
Description
HYFLEX 101 Technology, Tips and Best Practices
This course is intended for those who are new to the HyFlex environment; it is designed to be a short course that introduces participants to this relatively new style of teaching. Participants will examine two different types of HyFlex lesson plans. Participants will also learn about basic tips and strategies for creating and facilitating a HyFlex course.
HYFLEX 102 HyFlex Lesson Planning and Teaching Strategies
In this course, you will learn how to navigate the physical HyFlex classroom and learn tips and best practices for creating and facilitating a HyFlex course. Some options for HyFlex-Light alternatives will also be discussed.
HYFLEX 103 HyFlex Microsoft Teams Student Engagement
Creating a cohesive and collaborative HyFlex learning environment can be a challenge. How do you bridge the gap between the students sitting in your classroom and the students streaming remotely? In this session, you will learn tips, tools and techniques for engaging students in a HyFlex learning environment using MS Teams and corresponding applications.